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Syria

Syria (GB)
Siria (I)
Siria (ES)
Syrie (F)
Síria (PO)
Syrië (N)

The semi-presidential Republic of Syria (Arabic الجمهورية العربية السورية) in the Near East with its capital Damascus covers 185,180 km². It borders Israel and Jordan to the south, Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north and Iraq to the east. Due to the civil war, a sovereign state no longer exists.

Syrien - Landkarte, Flagge, Wappen

History

Parts of the north-east were part of the cultural landscape of Mesopotamia. The coastal area and parts of Lebanon belonged to Phoenicia in the 2nd and 1st millennium BC. The Phoenician city states located in present-day Syria were Arados (Arwad) and Ugurit (Latakia). Viticulture was already practised here at least at the beginning of the 2nd millennium. The wines were supplied to the court of the pharaohs in Egypt, among other places. The capital Damascus was founded around 1,500 BC as the centre of the Aramean Empire and is mentioned in the Bible as a wine-growing centre. In the 8th century BC, the country came under the rule of Assyria and in 64 BC it was conquered by the Romans under the general Pompey (106-48 BC). It is worth mentioning that glass was produced here as early as the 2nd century BC and the art of glassblowing was invented.

Irak - Karte von Mesopotamien

Viticulture

Viticulture existed until the 1970s, but was then almost eliminated due to Islamic fundamentalism and the associated ban on alcohol. The English wine writer Cyrus Redding (1785-1870) reported that red and white wine of Bordeaux quality was produced in Syria. At that time, there must still have been significant viticulture. From 1920 to 1944, Syria was a French mandate territory, which led to the introduction of French grape varieties and a revitalisation of viticulture. At the beginning of the 1990s, there were still 120,000 hectares of vineyards.

In 2022, the vineyards only covered 47,669 hectares, most of which were used for table grapes and sultanas. The small wine production of around 1,000 hectares of vineyards with French varieties in the hills around Damascus, Aleppo and Hems is carried out by the Christian minority. The civil war from 2011 onwards brought viticulture to an almost complete standstill.

Map: © Goruma
Flag: Public domain, Link
Coat of arms: Public domain, Link
Ancient map: by Goran tek-en - Own work, based on Mesopotamia Syria, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

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Lehrgangsleiter Sommelierausbildung WIFI-Wien

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